The alarming cost of health care across our state and nation is a constant and vexing concern to all of us. As medical costs rise, so do the premiums we pay for our health insurance. While Rep. Tom Woods can be commended for wanting to address the problem, his bill, HB 395, which focuses on symptoms rather than causes, would do more harm than good.

I’ve read a handful of opinion pieces recently by self-appointed nature experts who assert that other people are doing wilderness or the outdoors “wrong.”

With the emergence of the video game Pokémon Go last summer, for example, many teens and young adults made their way for the first time into national parks, wildlife refuges and other natural areas to capture their virtual prizes. In turn, many older folks snorted that those young people were missing the point of nature.

President Obama has one more thing to do before he clears his desk in the Oval Office. He needs to fix a mistake from Bill Clinton’s administration that allows endangered species to be killed by hunters without any prosecution from the Department of Justice. This policy is named after a rifleman who shot one of the most important alpha wolves reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1995.

During the holidays, many Montanans make our most significant charitable donations of the year. Some research shows almost 25 percent of our personal giving takes place between Christmas and the New Year.

As a leader in Montana’s nonprofit community, I offer a heartfelt thank you to the hundreds of individuals, families and businesses in the Livingston area who give so generously to nonprofits serving the Livingston community and beyond.

It’s early October, and I’m at the High Plains Book Festival at the art museum in Billings, Montana, selling books as fast as I can handle the slippery credit-card reader. My own books are on the table with those of other regional authors and friends. Stacks of books pass to people I’ve known for years.